DIY: Touring

Booking Your Own Tour

BY MATT PARISH

Once you're on the road, touring in a band isn't difficult. You just need to have things mapped out, get places early and have extra equipment or the means to fix what you have. What we'll work on here is the booking work that needs to be done before you get in the van.

Routing and Initiating Contacts

Begin your time line four months in advance by mapping out a route. Even though your final trip will only vaguely resemble this first version, you should begin with a city planned for every night of the tour before you send your first email. People helping you out want to hear "I need a show on this date," not "I need a show somewhere around the end of next month." The latter just makes you look unorganized and flakey, and no one wants to book a flakey band. If bookers tell you "no," you can always ask if there are other nights open. The important thing is to have a solid, explicit plan for a tour from the beginning that can be adapted later on. Put sensible distances between cities. Not only does it help your sanity to not be in the car eight hours a day, it will help your budget. The less you drive between shows, the less you spend on gas between payouts. Now, the most important tool you have in booking a tour on your own is your friends. Contact everyone you know that tours, plays in bands in other cities, books shows, goes to shows or even has kids that go to shows. Spread your net far and wide. The more people advising you, the better. Have you been treating bands well when they tour through your town? You'll need their help now. You'll be working with three kinds of people: Promoters, Clubs, and Bands. Bands tend to be the best early contacts because they can give you honest ideas and, if they're excited about you, can start laying all the groundwork for you right away. Any of these can be helpful and any can be duds. You'll have to make use of all these kinds of sources. Some cities run on promoters sniffing out cool underground places to play, some cities have a few clubs with really thoughtful and attentive booking agents. It's usually in flux and requires a little research and intuition to get it right.

Making Booking Inquiries

Begin making calls and emails to bookers before the three-months mark. Once you start, never let up. Check your email and voicemail constantly. Spend as much of your free time as your sanity allows researching cities and clubs and finding new people to contact about shows. Keep a big calendar on the wall with big red marks wherever there isn't a show confirmed yet. Emailing bookers is easy. Include the band's name and the date needed in the subject. Get to the point in the body of the email. Introduce yourself. Tell them if and how you're connected - how you found their email, who you know in common, why the shows they book seem like a great match for you. Anything. Describe your band and relevant bands you've played with in a couple of lines. Include a few glowing press clips, a link to your music online, an online press kit or MySpace page and your phone number. Calling people is a little tougher – many bookers only operate a few hours a day and a few days a week – but it's often more rewarding. Be kind, cordial, and attentive. A lot of places don't take calls – it puts them on the spot. Rejoice when someone takes your call. If nothing else, you can at least get them to say they're all booked. When booking a tour, a definite "no" is a lot more useful than someone stringing you along for weeks and weeks.

Deals and Offers

Once you've got an offer for a show, don't just settle for anything. Do you have any leverage? Do you expect to draw people to the show? If you have no reason to expect anyone to come to the show at all, it still doesn't hurt to throw out a small figure – $150, say – as a suggestion to the club. With a guarantee, the booker has invested in the show and now has a higher stake in making your show a success. If they're not down with the guarantee, they worst they can do is say "no." When you're happy with the situation, confirm it. Get as much of the deal in writing as possible – the door deal, the flat fee, meal preparation, set times, contact people, anything. Once this is done, check it off the calendar and celebrate. You're one step closer to having your tour booked!